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The Philippines
This Week in AsiaPolitics

‘Mission accomplished’: US-Philippines Balikatan drills return in full battle mode

As 16,000 troops gear up for the 40th Balikatan, one Philippine general says he ‘doesn’t care’ how China reacts: ‘if they’re angry … good’

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US and Philippine troops conduct battle drills at Fort Magsaysay during last year’s Balikatan drills. Photo: US Army
Raissa Robles
A test of firepower. A projection of strength. A message to China. This year’s Balikatan exercise promises to be all this and more, organisers say, even as the United States adopts an increasingly isolationist stance under its mercurial president, Donald Trump.
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Next month, around 16,000 troops will converge in the Philippines for the 40th iteration of the joint annual drills, including personnel from six other nations: Australia, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain.

Scheduled to take place from April 21 to May 9, the war games will feature a “full battle” simulation, including live-fire missile tests and the dramatic sinking of a decommissioned Philippine Navy vessel, the WWII-era BRP Miguel Malvar.

The drills aim to showcase the firepower of new weapons systems acquired by the Philippines in recent years. The Philippine Air Force will deploy its Spyder mobile air defence systems, purchased from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems in 2022, while the Navy plans to fire its French-made Mistral 3 surface-to-air missiles installed on the frigates BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Antonio Luna.

The BRP Jose Rizal launches a surface-to-surface anti-ship missile at a mock enemy target during last year’s Balikatan drills. Photo: Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP
The BRP Jose Rizal launches a surface-to-surface anti-ship missile at a mock enemy target during last year’s Balikatan drills. Photo: Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP

“We will have an integrated air and missile defence exercise” for the first time, Brigadier General Michael Logico, executive agent for the drills, told This Week in Asia, stressing that the main focus of Balikatan 2025 would be on “interoperability” and the “bilateral defence of the Philippines”.

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